Functional imaging of thymic disorders (original) (raw)

Annals of medicine, 1999

Abstract

Human thymomas are rare tumours which usually develop in the chest. The diagnosis via guided biopsy, the evaluation of the extent of the tumour and its boundaries with adjacent organs, the choice of the appropriate therapeutic option, and the assessment of response to treatment are usually made with computed tomography (CT) alone or in combination with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). More recently, radiopharmaceuticals and nuclear medicine procedures have been used increasingly in the imaging and functional characterization of benign and malignant thymic disorders. Two groups of radiopharmaceuticals have been used. The first includes several oncotropic tracers, such as 201Tl-chloride, 99mTc-sestamibi and 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose, which are significantly concentrated in thymic tumours. Their uptake correlates with tumour grades and cellularity. The second class includes two radioligands: [(111)In-DTPA-D-Phe1]-octreotide (DTPA, diethylenetriamine penta-acetic acid) and [(111)In-DTPA-A...

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